臺灣高齡者家中飼養寵物狀態、遛狗行為與休閒身體活動之研究

全球高齡人口不斷攀升，高齡者的健康促進及慢性疾病預防已成為世界各國所關心的重要議題，而遛狗行為被認為是可以促進高齡者維持日常身體活動量的有效策略之一。對於臺灣高齡者家中飼養寵物狀態、遛狗行為與其休閒身體活動之關聯性探討有其必要性。本研究擬定之研究目的為 (1) 瞭解臺灣高齡者個人背景因素與家中飼養寵物狀態、遛狗行為、休閒身體活動之現況。(2) 瞭解臺灣高齡者個人背景因素與家中飼養寵物狀態、遛狗行為、休閒身體活動之關聯性。(3) 瞭解臺灣高齡者家中飼養寵物狀態、遛狗行為與休閒身體活動之關聯性。本研究針對臺灣地區65歲以上高齡者利用分層隨機抽樣進行電話訪問調查，回收之有效樣本為1,074位高齡者，資料以IBM SPSS 22.0進行分析，統計方法包括描述性統計、卡方檢定、二元邏輯斯迴歸及克-瓦二氏檢定(Kruskall-Wallis test)考驗。研究結果發現，(1) 「居住狀態」與「是否飼養寵物」統計上顯著相關；居住狀態為獨居的高齡者較易飼養寵物。(2) 「居住地區」與「是否養狗」統計上顯著相關；居住在南部地區的高齡者較易養狗。 (3)「居住地區」與「遛狗行為」統計上顯著相關；居住在南部地區的高齡者較易有養狗但沒遛狗。 (4)「年齡」、「居住地區」、「工作狀態」、「教育程度」4個變項與休閒身體活動統計上顯著相關；年齡「65-74歲」、居住地區為「東部及外島地區」、工作狀態為「無全職工作（不固定或兼差）」、教育程度為「國（初）中」、「高中職及大學（專）、研究所（含）以上」的高齡者，較容易每週多於150分鐘休閒身體活動。 (5) 在遛狗行為與休閒身體活動方面，結果顯示不同遛狗行為的高齡者其在每週休閒身體活動的走路時間有顯著不同。本研究之結果可提供公部門規劃及推動高齡者身體活動相關政策之參考，達到我國高齡者健康促進之目的。建議未來研究可進一步探討不同居住地區中有養狗卻沒有遛狗者之原因，並發展促進有養狗但沒遛狗者以遛狗作為促進休閒身體活動之策略。

關鍵字

遛狗行為；健康促進；疾病預防；中高強度身體活動

並列摘要

With the growing number of elderly population, the issue of health promotion and disease prevention among older adults has become a priority of the world. Dog walking has been widely considered to be a potential method for increasing and maintaining physical activity levels among older adults. It is of value to examine the associations of pet ownership, dog walking behavior with leisure-time physical activity. Therefore, the aims of this study are (1) to describe the prevalence of pet ownership and dog walking according to socio-demographic variables. (2) to examine the association of sociodemographic factors with pet ownership and leisure-time physical activity. (3) to identify the relationship of pet ownership and dog walking with leisure-time physical activity. A telephone-based cross-sectional survey targeting Taiwanese older adults was conducted. Data related to dog ownership, time spent in dog walking and sociodemographic variables were obtained from 1,074 older adults. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test ,adjusted binary logistic regression and Kruskall-Wallis test were performed using IBM SPSS 22.0 The results showed that (1) Living status is associated with pet ownership; Elderly living alone were more likely to be pet owner. (2) Residential area is associated with dog ownership; Elderly living in the south area were more likely to be dog owner. (3) Residential area is associated with dog walking; Elderly living in the south were more likely to own dogs but not walk their dogs. (4) Age, residential area, work status and educational level are associated with leisure-time physical activity; Elderly who aged 65-74 years, lived in eastern and outer area, not employed and with higher educational level were more likely to meet 150 minutes of leisure-time physical activity per week. (5) Dog walkers had significantly higher time spent in leisure-time walking than non-dog owners and non-dog walkers. The above-mentioned results are critical to inform policy-makers and physical activity intervention designers for health promotion of the elderly. It is suggested that further studies could focus on examining the barriers of dog walking among those who own dogs but not walk their dogs), for the purpose of promoting their leisure-time physical activity.